Admission to bed 13 in the ICU does not reduce the chance of survival

Abstract

PurposeTo examine whether admission to bed number 13 on our intensive care unit has any negative impact on the patient's hospital mortality. Materials and methodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of 1568 patients admitted to our ICU over a two-year period. Observed hospital mortality, predicted mortality using the ICNARC and APACHE II scoring systems and standardised mortality ratios were used to compared patients admitted to bed number 13 with those admitted to beds number 14–24. ResultsOf the 1568 patients admitted to ICU, 110 were placed in bed number 13 and 1458 into bed numbers 14–24. Demographics and ICNARC and APACHE II scores were similar between the two groups. There was no significant difference in the ICNARC predicted hospital mortality (mean 21.0%, median8.5% in bed 13 compared with a mean 17.5%, median 6.4% in beds 14–24, p = 0.33), APACHE II predicted hospital mortality (mean 18.4%, median 9.9% in bed 13 compared with mean 18.7%, median 8.9% in beds 14–24, p = 0.74), or observed hospital mortality (20.2% compared with 15.2%, OR 1.41 (CI 0.87 to 2.30), p = 0.17). ConclusionsAdmission to bed number 13 was not associated with a significant increase in hospital mortality when compared to admission to other bed numbers.